Return of the Magic School Bus
by RogueDragon and Nebulan
Summary: The friends have drifted apart over the last several years, but now, as high school juniors, they must come back together for their most sinister and dangerous adventure yet!
1. Chapter 1: Suspect Coincidences

Return of the Magic School Bus By RogueDragon

Act 1: The Other School Bus

Chapter 1: Suspect Coincidences

Mr. Shu had been grading midterm papers for his class of 2003 seniors when a honk outside his window disturbed his concentration. It was early in the morning and most of his fellow teachers had not even arrived, let alone any students; so it was unlikely to be someone simply causing a ruckus. Coming to the window where his class pet ferret had also come to glance out in curiosity, he saw the only vehicle in the near part of the parking lot was the history department's school bus, which, for some reason, had its hazard lights flashing.

Climbing onto Shu's shoulders, Mr. Funk, the dark brown ferret, accompanied the World History Teacher down the stairs to investigate. The near-dawn air was slightly cold and damp somehow adding a mystical, yet foreboding feeling. The normally fearless ferret wrapped around Shu's neck and chittered nervously.

"Take it easy, Funkmeister!" Shu laughed, but his confidence wavered. Climbing aboard the empty bus, he sat down in the driver's seat and turned off the flashing hazard lights. The only thing remaining lit up was a light on the dashboard controls. Flipping the switch, a simple beeping of a radio signal sounded.

Shu knew this was the mystery solved: this signal was what they were meant to find; but it spoke of a much bigger problem. Only one person could possibly have sent it; and the signal was definitely an S.O.S.!

-!o≡ll≡o!-

Dorothy Ann rarely thought about Miss. Frizzle these days. High School was more than enough to keep her every thought occupied, but after the third reminder of those adventures so long ago, her gut was telling her something was up.

The first reminder had been in the morning. At breakfast, Dorothy Ann's mother had mentioned that Amanda Jane, her youngest sister, would be staying another night on her aviary field trip.

"Interesting," mused Mrs. Sorensen, "Miss Frizzle never had a field trip longer than a night or two with you girls."

"Yeah, how much can you learn about birds in three full days?"Dorothy Ann's middle school-aged sister Evan commented. "Then again, my class never got around to 'where bird babies come from'; but D.A. did!" Evan continued with a sneaky grin, "That's when she brought her cock home!"

"Eva Lynn!" their mother chastised.

"Fine, he was only a chick at the time," Evan conceded to which their mother gave a nod of approval before heading to a different room as the daughters glanced outside to where Arnold Junior, the ridiculously old rooster, stood at his usual perch in the back yard.

When she was sure her mom was out of earshot, Evan leaned to her older sister and whispered. "What sort of trouble do you think they got into? They only time we ever over-nighted in her class was when the bus got stuck in a glacier, what about you?"

D.A. had to pause to mentally reopen that chapter of her life she guarded with such care before she commented, "only a couple of times. There was the sound museum, but we had a concert there. The only time it was unexpected was when we got caught in a downpour in the desert."

"Well, unless A. J. sabotaged their field trip, what can go wrong?" Evan concluded, "I'm sure they're fine."

After that conversation, Miss Frizzle didn't come to mind until a few hours later when her history teacher announced at the end of class that they would need a partner for their next project.

"Come on! We're great partners and you know it!" Carlos Ramon insisted, dodging other students as he tried to keep up in the crowded hallway, "it would be like the good old days!"

"The days when I did all the work?" D.A. countered as she stopped by her locker.

"You and I both know that you wanted to do all the work on those projects!" Carlos insisted, "Besides, we wouldn't have won that science fair in middle school without me as our smooth-talking presenter!"

"Your smooth talking isn't working now, Carlos!" D.A. snapped, trying to give him a cold shoulder as she piled up her text books for her next three classes.

"Dorothy Ann," he started in his smoothest tone, "you know I'm smart, but I also balance you out! My creativity and randomness with your logic to keep us grounded, together we're unbeatable!" With that declaration he leaned in and whispered, "We complete each other."

Denying that she could possibly have a blush growing, she closed her locker with a slam and worked her way towards class declaring, "Try it on some other girl, Ramon!"

"Come on, Sorensen!" he whined again, "Take a chance! Make a mistake! Get messy!" D.A. hesitated, wondering how one gets messy for a history project, but kept walking, finally getting some distance between them.

"Besides, I've got a great idea!" He concluded, knowing he had her attention. "We should try our hand at making authentic Baghdad Batteries! My uncle's got a kiln and everything!"

"Carlos!" Dorothy Ann cried, exasperated, "why didn't you say that first?!"

"Because I knew you'd love it!" he grinned cheekily, "And us agreeing on something outright would probably destabilize the universe or something!" He continued in that irritatingly suave confidence, "plus, just as it was back then, banter, my beautiful genius, is what we do best!" he concluded as if he would bow, but the hallway was too crowded and he disappeared.

Dorothy Ann cursed mentally, "Now I'm definitely not going to be able to concentrate in Pre-Calc!"

At lunchtime, D. A. had sat down alone, wanting to get some extra studying in. Her plans weren't unpleasantly interrupted when she was joined by a couple of old friends she hadn't talked to in years.

"Is it okay if we sit here?"

Glancing up, she the kind faces of Phoebe Terese and Keesha Franklin. "Hi! Sure, no problem!" she responded, moving her text books out of the way.

"Still hitting the books as hard as ever?" Keesha grinned, opening her sack lunch. D.A. couldn't resist the dread that comment had brought up, fearing the direction the conversation would go. Keesha, however, had nothing but praise. "You put the rest of us to shame! I really don't know how you manage to balance it all! Most others like you have gone anti-social, but you are cooler than ever! My friend in the band says he wishes they had gotten you as drum major a couple years earlier!"

D.A. was amazed how Keesha made it seem like no time at all had passed since they used to hang out together. "I think that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," Dorothy Ann responded with a soft chuckle.

"Oh come on, girl!" Keesha teased, "why you even still in our grade? I would have thought you'd have graduated by now."

"I guess I haven't had any desire to move on so quickly," Dorothy Ann responded, putting the rest of her textbooks away so she could focus on her old friends better.

"I know what you mean," Phoebe commented, "I'm not sure I'm looking forward to leaping into the real world. Everyone else is in such a hurry to grow up, but I'm just going to miss some of those benefits that childhood allowed us."

There was a nod of agreement among the girls, but they steered clear of any talk of olden days and chatted about their current extra-curricular activities instead.

A gut feeling had been tugging at Dorothy Ann all morning. Something big was coming, something she felt needed facing head-on. Therefore, she somehow wasn't surprised when she heard the announcement over the loud speaker.

"Would the following students please come meet at the front of the school: Phoebe Terese, Carlos Ramon, Dorothy Ann Sorensen, Arnold Perlstein, and Keesha Franklin; please come to the front of the building."

"What the-" Keesha started, "that's a suspicious group of names."

"What do you think is going on?" Phoebe asked.

Dorothy Ann didn't say anything. Something big was going on and she needed answers!


	2. Chapter 2: Too Late to Stay Home

Return of the Magic School Bus by RogueDragon

Act 1: The Other School Bus

Chapter Two: Too late to Stay Home

At first, Arnold thought it was only his imagination that he heard his name over the announcement system.

"Hey, Arnold, didn't they just call your name to go out front?" Arnold's girlfriend Tiffany nudged him with her elbow.

"Did they?" Arnold asked nervously glancing at his cousin who was busy with the student government meeting. His boredom and growling stomach signifying a missed lunch made him a little too anxious to flee the room.

Tiffany giggled softly, "don't worry, she can't make you stay."

"Doesn't mean she won't try," he responded with a grateful smile, getting out of his chair in a way to cause the least amount of disturbance possible. Unfortunately, he'd have to pass Janet on his way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Janet hissed at her cousin as he tried to sneak out.

"The front office called for me to come," Arnold insisted.

"I told you this meeting is important!" Janet failed to whisper, "If you're going to be student body president next year, you need to be involved now!"

"I highly doubt refusing directions from the school's administrators would be very beneficial to that goal," he retorted.

Harry, the student body president laughed, "He got you there, Janet. Hurry up and get out of here, Arnold, before they come to track you down!"

Glad to be given an order he wanted to comply with, Arnold fled the room before Janet could make him stay.

Arnold stopped by his locker on his way to grab his lunch before reaching the main front doors to the building.

The area around the front doors typically had students eating their lunches, even on slightly gloomy days such as it was. Today, however, lunch-eaters were mostly clustered farther off on the sidelines of the practicing sports teams down on the field.

The people near the doorway, however, were three girls he hadn't really talked to since they started high school. Keesha, Phoebe, and D.A. waited together a few feet away from the curb of the sidewalk. Like him, they seemed to have no idea what they were waiting on. Keesha seemed to be the only one who noticed his arrival. Dorothy Ann was examining her environment as if searching for clues while Phoebe seemed to be intently studying the headlights of a nearby school bus. Keesha acknowledge him with a raised eyebrow that seemed to either invite him to start a conversation with her, or challenged him to.

With nothing to say, Arnold would have continued standing awkwardly except the doors behind him opened with a burst of airflow.

"Hey guys!" Carlos greeted enthusiastically, throwing an arm around Arnold's shoulder. "Long time, no see, huh! Arnold, how you doing buddy? Isn't this great? An impromptu reunion just like old times!"

"You think this has anything to do with Miss Fizzle's class?" Dorothy Ann voiced with concern.

"It's probably just a coincidence that the five of us happen to have been in the same class several years ago," Keesha commented, as the girls joined the boys near the doors.

"Freshmen year, I met up with several kids from my first elementary school," Phoebe offered, "our first grade teacher had been diagnosed with cancer and so we organized a fundraiser."

"Yes, that was still planned and intentional!" Carlos pointed out as he stopped leaning on Arnold and laid his other elbow on Phoebe's shoulder, "and I love how you said that in your 'at my old school' voice!" Phoebe blushed.

"Ralphie and Wanda weren't paged," Keesha observed.

"Yeah, but the baseball team is facing off against the softball team during today's lunch," Carlos noted, walking towards the curb to get a better view of the field. "All we need now is give Standerton High School a call and find some way to get Tim over here!"

"Oh, Tim's at Standerton High?" Dorothy Ann asked, "Hadn't heard from him since middle school."

"Yeah, I've kept in touch," Carlos responded, "he was here a couple months ago for a joint Art Honors Society meeting, too bad you missed him."

Arnold subconsciously stepped backward as if to try and hide in the shadows of high noon, wishing fleetingly to be back in the student government meeting. He had seen Tim in the hall after school that day and said a quick "hey" before heading off to his own meetings. "Hey" was about as much as he has said to any of these guys in the last few years.

"What the-" Carlos started, watching as three figures approach from the field, "No way!" As the tall teen took off in the direction of the approaching trio, the others, as if inspired by his sudden enthusiasm, followed.

Arnold jogged softly to catch up, recognizing who the new folks were. "Today would have been a good day to stay home." He muttered, knowing in his gut that it was going to be one of _those_ days. Except this felt potentially life changing. Like he needed more stress in his life!

Tim Vanderwaals happy greeted the on comers but seemed anxious. Carlos was still hanging on Tim after giving his old friend a tackle-hug and had thrown his other arm around Wanda, who, like Ralphie, had accompanied Tim from the field, still in uniform.

"Hey, the gang's all here!" Ralphie laughed.

"Tim, what's going on?" Wanda asked with concern, subconsciously and ever so slightly turning her back to Arnold. The red-head also noticed that she pointedly avoided eye contact with him. Then again, she's been avoiding him for years.

With Tim now the center of attention, he took a deep breath, "I've come to ask for your help," He explained, "I've already got permission from your school for you all to have the rest of the day off."

"What?" the others asked.

"In interest of inter-school cooperation or something, so no one will ask questions."

"Tim, quit avoiding the question and tell us what's wrong!" Keesha cut in.

Tim sighed and with another breath said, "Miss Frizzle has been kidnapped."

Questions poured from the others as Tim checked to make sure no outsider was in earshot. With a hand gesture the others quieted and he added, "So has the bus."


	3. Chapter 3: A Field Trip of Their Own

Return of the Magic School Bus by RogueDragon

Act 1: The Other School Bus

Chapter Three: A Field Trip of Their Own

Tim had contemplated for the entire drive from Standerton to Walkerville how he was going to start this conversation. Even now he had no idea where to begin. "Miss Frizzle is friends with one of the history teachers at my school," Tim gestured to Keesha and Arnold to come closer so everyone could hear him without having to speak too loudly. "He found me and told me she needed help. He got a signal on a frequency only the two of them use. He says that after some S-O-S it simply said 'bus and I captured; find my class."

"What about her class?" Dorothy Ann sounded uncharacteristically panicked, "my sister is in her class!"

Other questions poured in. "What happened?" "Why do they need us?" "How can we help?"

Tim felt overwhelmed, and exposed as other students passed the group with confused expressions. "Look, guys, I'd rather explain this on the road. Can we get on the bus and we'll discuss it on the way."

"What, this bus?" Phoebe asked, gesturing to the nearby parked school bus. It was a full size but with the newer flat-front design. "I thought I saw it blink at me," she muttered.

"Don't be crazy, Pheebs," Keesha chided off-handedly before turning to Tim, "Why do you need us? Isn't this something the proper authorities should handle?" she demanded, crossing her arms. "Check the credentials, Tim, we're High School Juniors, not a search-and-rescue team!"

"And some of us have responsibilities to take care of here," Arnold added, speaking to the group for the first time.

"It has to be us, Keesha!" Tim begged, "Miss Frizzle apparently once told Mr. Shu that we were the only people she trusted in an emergency."

Before Keesha could respond with another counter argument, she was cut off by Dorothy Ann. "A dozen or so children need our help and could be in danger! Do you people feel you have something better to do!?" She challenged the group, looking so unexpectedly hostile that no one had anything to say. "Then get your butts ON THAT BUS!"

Without an additional word, the eight teenagers filed onto the school bus in an orderly and obedient fashion with Tim sitting down at the wheel.

Ralphie was first to break the silence when he sat behind the driver's seat, "dude, you got a license to drive one of these?"

"I got a special permission slip," Tim responded, "besides; I don't think we'll get pulled over." As he started up the vehicle, a long rodent creature of a dark chocolate color scrambled out from under the seats and onto the back of Tim's seat. "Oh, and this is Mr. Funk, Mr. Shu's class pet; he's here as adult supervision." The others weren't sure whether to take him seriously or not.

Once they pulled onto the main road, the idea of what was happening started to sink in. "Alright, Tim," Wanda spoke up, "Start at the beginning!"

"Apparently," Tim sighed, keeping his eyes on the road "When I first started at Standerton, Frizzle told Shu all about us. We're the only class she had two years in a row due to that change-up they had our fourth-grade year, even then we apparently went on fieldtrips nearly three times as often as any of her other classes!"

"And that's when she said we'd be the best to turn to in case of emergency?" Wanda asked from the row behind Ralphie. "I get that we probably had some great survival skills for eight and nine-year-olds, but is that all?"

"Apparently we're a perfectly balanced mix," Tim explained, "she said, as a team there is nothing we can't accomplish." he said weightily, "that's why I didn't want to risk leaving anyone out."

"Aw yeah!" Carlos cheered, "Gang's back together and ready to rock!" His former classmate looked at him rather annoyed, but said nothing, feeling the tension of the situation better than he did. "So where we headed, anyway?" He queried, not completely raucous.

"The Aviary Preserve by the river," Tim explained, "that's supposedly where they were headed for their field trip."

"Yeah, the field trip permission slip said the Aviary for 'bird studies'" Dorothy Ann confirmed, "as far as I've been able to tell with my sisters, the topics of the field trips were always true."

"You think Miss Frizzle lies to the parents of her class?" Ralphie asked, slightly shocked.

"Well, she certainly can't say she planned to explore the interior of a volcano on a permission slip!" Wanda responded with a slap on Ralphie's shoulder.

"Did we have permission slips?" Carlos asked "I can't remember."

"It's a newer precaution for the elementary schools county-wide," D.A. explained, "But all of the students' parents trust Miss Frizzle as well as the faculty."

"Apparently someone somewhere thought she was worth attacking" Keesha pointed out sourly, sobering up her busmates some, leaving an awkward silence that hung in the air for a while.

Tim could barely stand the quietness, feeling self-conscious about how the others must be viewing the situation. Despite a strong wish to start up a friendly conversation with his old friends, he remained quiet and focused on the road. If anyone said anything from that point until they reached their destination, it was inconsequential.

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

The Aviary was something of a local misnomer. It wasn't actually a public building, but a bird research center managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service with an adjoining avian preserve. Upon entering the FWS lands, Tim talked with a security guard who had been told to expect a High School Group by Mr. Shu.

Everyone seemed pretty friendly. The scientists and administration were used to occasional tours and appreciated curious visitors. Unfortunately, while this group was interested and asked good questions, they all seemed pretty distracted.

When the group of high-schoolers left the FWS grounds in the bus they parked a few hundred yards away to discuss their options.

"They weren't in there," Dorothy Ann concluded, "no big enough groups, and certainly none of the birds inside the research center had been there for less than three days."

"We're looking for a group of birds?" Keesha asked confused, "I thought we were looking for clues."

"We _are_ looking for clues," Carlos responded, "I guess some of us just assumed that turning into birds would be the best way to learn about them. It worked for us a couple of times, didn't it?"

"Then they must be in the preserve," Wanda offered. She wanted to keep things moving out of concern for Dorothy Ann. She was the only other teen in the group to have a sibling of a similar age, so she understood Dorothy Ann's current frame of mind.

They all pondered the fenced-in lands adjacent to the research center's grounds.

"Well," Phoebe started, "As much as I want to help those kids, I'm not in a hurry to climb that fence, trespass on federally protected ground, nor break the trust that those employees just placed on us."

"What are we going to do then?" Wanda asked.

A without an added word, Tim started the bus's engine back up and drove the bus to a service road a good ways down and stopped.

"Everyone think of your favorite bird," he instructed and placed his hand on a large lever that none of the others had noticed before. They didn't get much of a chance to think before he pulled the lever.

It was a sensation they all had experienced before, but probably didn't give it all that much thought back then. It felt like they were in zero gravity (they did know what that felt like) and yet stuck in a single place. Outside the windows the wilderness of the preserve and the occasionally attended-to lands on the other side of the road blurred together, yet they felt no inertia whatsoever.

What they did feel was their bones changing. Their clothes disappeared into their skins and feathers grew and their bodies shrank. It didn't hurt, but to have their bodies change so was a sensation that seemed so much weirder this time around.

When the bus had ceased moving, they found themselves in a gothic-style birdcage the size of a gazebo. And they were all birds; except for the ferret Mr. Funk and Keesha who sat on the floor with an indiscernible expression.

Then things got crazy.

Everyone talked at once with questions of all sorts. "How the h-" "Wait, THIS is a magic school bus?!" "Awesome!" "Tim! You... Frizzled us!"

Tim, a large blue-gray and white eagle opened up the birdcage and clung to it just outside the cage door, swinging it so those inside could see. There was a design on the door with a curly French Gothic look to it. Inset into the design were the same headlights as the vehicle that they had just been in. While before the lights had looked like two squares together to make a rectangle, now the line separating to two squares twitched freely like eye movement. Combined with the gradient of the refractors, they looked a lot like white, rectangular cat eyes. It looked at them all shyly.

It definitely wasn't the same school bus they had known.

"There's more than one Magic School bus?" An eastern bluebird with Phoebe's dark auburn layered hair fluttered to the door. "Hello! I'm Phoebe!" She greeted.

"Both Mr. Shu and his bus are actually a lot less extroverted than Miss Frizzle," Tim started to explain.

"That's not hard to do!" laughed a gyrfalcon with the school colors of WHS in his spots and Ralphie's messy brown hair.

Tim continued "and in recent years, Mr. Shu doesn't even tell all of his students the truth about their field trips. He plans special events for those with a particular interest in history and takes them to surprisingly authentic reenactments."

"I can't believe there's another bus!" a swan sporting Wanda's sassy pixie cut also fluttered over to join in the salutations.

"From what I can tell," Tim said with seriousness, "there may be a lot of things we don't have any idea about."

"I can't believe we're actually on a field trip again," Carlos, a California Seagull laughed and flew out the door.

"Keesha, why didn't you change?" a Great-Horned Owl with a blonde ponytail asked.

"I'm stuck on figuring out why _you_ changed," Keesha countered, "You're a bird, Dorothy Ann!"

"It's not my first time," the owl responded evenly.

Keesha got up to climb out of the door and step away from the birdcage-bus. "But it's a physical impossibility! We never should have been able to shrink or turn into bats or light!" Getting this huffy was unusual for Keesha. None of them were the type to throw fits. Ask any of their classmates, aside from some personality quirks, these kids were all remarkably mature for their age.

"Well, obviously it's not impossible!" Ralphie pointed out, flying out to follow her.

Dorothy Ann intervened, "Keesha, I understand what you're frustrated with. The only reason why I'm not frustrated with this magic encroaching on the science that I know and love is because I'm rather single minded at the moment!"

"It's cool D.A.!" Keesha raised her hand to reassure, "I just think it's my turn to sit a field trip out. I'll keep the bus and the ferret company, go find your sister." Keesha sat down beside the cage with a demeanor that announced that the conversation was over.

After an awkward moment, Tim braved taking charge again. "Divide and conquer," Tim landed on the ground and directed the remaining occupant of the gazebo cage, a redheaded mallard, to join the rest of them outside; "We still have tons of daylight, but let's not waste any time. And I think each group needs a bird of prey in case the local wildlife is too wild."

Tim had rather hoped they would divide and take action like the good old days, but by just standing around he was reminded that they were no longer a cohesive unit. With a sigh he made random groups, "Phoebe, you want to go with D.A. and search the closer third of the reserve? Wanda, Ralphie, and Arnold can take the middle third where the sign indicated more water and Carlos and I can take the far end. How's that sound?"

The atmosphere was still awkward so the groups took off without a word.

Once they were gone, Keesha tilted her head towards the buscage and said, "Sorry. It has nothing to do with you." Mr. Funk skittered over to her and attempted to be reassuring as she stifled a sob.


	4. Chapter 4: A Gaggle of Goslings

Return of the Magic School Bus by RogueDragon

Act 1: The Other School Bus

Chapter Four: A Gaggle of Goslings

"What is wrong with everyone?" Tim grumble as he and the seagull Carlos flew high and fast toward the far end of the wildlife preserve. "So much for that cohesive unit Miss Frizzle believed us to be!"

"Eh, we all got our issues I guess," Carlos responded, nonchalantly.

"Seriously?" Tim guffawed, "somehow I thought a group of kids who survived crazy adventures as third and fourth graders wouldn't let something as petty as teenage angst hold them back."

"Crap happens, man" Carlos responded evenly.

"Yeah, but I had always wondered what it would have been like to have you guys around as support." Tim said, "What we went through with Frizzle defined us, no matter what we may think. There's no one in Standerton who'd get it. You're the only I ever talk to that's been there too, but e-mail seems rather lame."

"Would you like the come to my house sometime and lay on the sofa while I wear a silly mustache and listen to your problems while doodling in a notebook?" Carlos offered only to get pounced by the eagle.

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

"How about you water birds search the wetlands together while I search from above," Ralphie offered, "I'll keep a protective eye on you."

"You want to test the self defense capabilities of a swan?" Wanda threatened. "Arnold can take the areas with the low-hanging branches; I'll be on the far side of the pond." With that decision and a gust of air from her large wings, she dove towards her destination.

"What did I say?" Ralphie whined knowingly. Arnold continued to say nothing.

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

In the rocky part of the preserve, D.A. tried to ask Phoebe about Keesha, but Phoebe insisted it wasn't her place to say.

"My job is to be there for her when she needs me too," Phoebe explained evasively, "That's what best friends and temporary foster sisters are for."

"Foster sister?" Dorothy Ann asked, "what about her family?"

"Like I said, not my place."

"Then why did you let that slip?"

"I didn't say I couldn't drop hints to someone who could gently edge her away from her pride."

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

A couple hours later, Tim and Carlos returned to where the bus (which was once again a full-size bus), Mr. Funk, and Keesha were waiting. Tim realized a little too late that maybe he interrupted a one-sided conversation. Pretending he didn't see any redness in her eyes, Tim quickly confirmed with her that the other groups hadn't reported in yet. He and Carlos again flew out and rounded up the other groups, each reporting no success.

"Are you guys sure?" Dorothy Ann pleaded.

"Look, Dee, unless they were ants or very tiny birds, I think we need to try something else!" Carlos patted her shoulder with his wing.

"But where would we start?" Wanda continued nervously under her breath, " oh, what are we going to do..."

"What could they do without a bus?" Ralphie hypothesized, "Tim's transmission implied that they are separated from Frizzle and her bus; that they were lost and not captured, right?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Keesha asked as she walked to join the bird group seeming less angry than before, but still rather stoic, "We're not all that far away and the kids probably have wings. Where would we have gone to? To touch base? To figure out our next move?"

"Walkerville Elementary!" a few of the others gasped in nostalgic unison.

The birds and ferret flocked to the where the bus waited, door open and engine warming. "Um, Tim?" Keesha started, "Maybe you should let me drive?"

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

Pulling up to the Elementary school, parents and buses were gathering in preparation for school letting out. One more bus went unnoticed until a bizarre group of birds flew out of it.

"Lowtown University Ornithology Department," Keesha commented nonchalantly to the gawking safety patrol kids and teacher, "don't, worry, the birds are trained. We're here to demonstrate for Mr. Ruhle a program we might do in later months." A quick glance to the flank of the bus confirmed the University tale and they were successfully ignored.

"You're a pretty clever bus," Keesha's appreciative smile was minutely returned as a slight curvature of the front bumper of the bus. With nothing else to do, Keesha, the bus, and the ferret waited as the birds started circling the school grounds.

A gaggle of juvenile Canadian Geese on the school roof stood out, not only because of a distinct lack of adults, but because of a variety of hair on their heads. Dorothy Ann dived down towards one with a familiar blonde bob when something small darted at her in a blur.

Floundering backwards, D.A. tried to figure out what was attacking her by zooming around and poking her.

It was a small, green-back humming bird with two tiny horns on her head and one near the end of her beak.

"Liz?" Dorothy Ann gasped, "Liz, it's me, Dorothy Ann."

The defensive hummingbird stopped to look at the intruder. When she realized the newcomer was a friend, she chirped happily.

"What took you so long?" Amanda Jane demanded shortly before being tackled with a hug from her sister.

The rest of the birds gathered together with lots of questions. "Calm down, guys!" Wanda commanded, towering over the others, "Can any of you tell us what happened?"

"Miss Frizzle was taken!" a blond goose with koosh-ball hair offered, "And they took the bus too!"

"We gathered that much," Ralphie responded, "can you describe what happened?"

"We were all birds," one kid offered.

"Miss Frizzle was a parrot," another gosling added.

"The bus was a great blue heron."

"And they had traps!" a panicked brunette blurted out.

"One was a bazooka that shot out a net that captured the Frizz!" a boy with a brown bowl haircut bounded up to add, "the other was like a tank! It shot out these tethers that wrapped around the bus and pulled it in and sealed it inside!"

The goslings contributed more input, but nothing that seemed further clarifying.

"They were ambushed?" Phoebe gasped.

"It was planned," Arnold stated with doom in his tone. The fact that it was one of the few things Arnold had said all afternoon made the statement all the more ominous.

"Can you guys tell us anything of the people who did this?" Wanda inquired, but the kids didn't know anything except it was two men, one with a dark beard but both had hats and hunting gear on.

"Can we go home now?" a goose with long black hair asked.

"Come on, guys, let's get you down to the bus," Carlos directed.

"You found the bus?" Amanda Jane spoke up with excitement, "Did you find Miss Frizzle? We tried to follow them but they drove too fast."

"Sorry, Aij," D.A. replied, "This is a different bus. We don't know what happened to Miss Frizzle."

The kids sadly nodded in understanding and obediently followed the other birds to the school bus below. Once all inside, they looked expectantly at Keesha who stood at the front of the bus.

"Hate to break it to you guys," she told them, "But I don't know how to drive a MAGIC vehicle. Do you want me to start pressing buttons and hope I don't turn us all into useless some amoebae?"

Mr. Funk chittered at her and indicated a specific level. "Fine, I'll give it a try." But it didn't work.

Chattering started up among the avian passengers, sounding more stressful with a dozen young geese that were more than ready to go home.

"Try a different lever."

"Maybe someone else should try?"

"But she's actually got opposable thumbs!"

"We're doomed," Ralphie concluded unhelpfully.

"Does this have anything to do with why you didn't turn into a bird with the rest of us earlier?" Carlos inquired, oblivious to her subtle tensing at the suggestion.

"Keesha, does it have to do with any difficulties accepting that magic exist?" Dorothy Ann asked almost maternally, "because I know I'm going to be reeling tonight once A.J. is safe. I've struggled so much to come to terms with the existence of magic! I mean, why would Miss Frizzle work so hard to teach us to love science when her methods used something that has no place in science?"

Keesha looked increasingly uncomfortable, but the owl had gently flown near her and kept talking. "I've asked myself the same questions repeatedly and you know what I've concluded? That maybe it isn't magic. Maybe it's a combination of science we don't yet understand combined with symbolic illusion used as a teaching tool. That while we may have made a physical impact, our fieldtrips didn't necessarily happen as clear-cut and literally as we experienced them. Right now I'm certain that I am not technically an owl at all, but for all intents and purposes, I'm close enough."

"I get it, D.A.!" Keesha defensively responded, "It's obvious it exists to some degree or another, but what does any of that have to do with it not working now?"

"Maybe magic comes partly from within," the tiny bluebird Phoebe flew up onto the shoulder of the driver's seat, "As little children we wanted magic to teach us. We wanted to explore, learn, have adventures. It was easier to accept."

"Yeah, Keesh," Wanda waddled to join them at the front of the bus, "Maybe the bus is waiting on you to accept its existence."

"I have no problem with this fine...vehicle!" Keesha insisted, "It's helping us out even though it doesn't know any of us! I promise I have no issues with this bus!"

"Than what do you have issues with?" Carlos pried. All of the high schooler birds were at the front of the bus now which wasn't helping Keesha's stress.

"Why would my issues be an issue right now?" All things considered, Keesha was doing really well at keeping it together.

"I'm guessing that there is something holding you back," Dorothy Ann offered, "It's okay, Keesha, you can tell us."

"My problems have nothing to do with any of you!" Keesha responded.

"Maybe it's time to let go, Keesha," Phoebe gently said, "It's okay to lose your cool, to lose control."

"I've always had a gift for making her loose her cool!" Ralphie proudly offered, flapping up to the rail in front of the front row to try and look her in the eye as best he could.

"I have no reason to be upset!" Keesha insisted, "Don't try your stupid theories on me! You don't know anything about me anymore!"

"I know that you're far too practical to be such a drama queen right now-"

"I am NOT a drama queen-"

"Not without good reason at least." Ralphie continued to deduce, "And it wouldn't be something teenagery like an ex-boyfriend, because you certainly wouldn't go for the magical fairytale love, let alone blame it for a ruined relationship."

"Ralphie..." Keesha warned in a deadly voice.

"I know _I_ might be bitter about the existence of magic since maybe it could have prevented things that tore _my_ life apart, such as my parents' divorce and subsequent choices," Ralphie continued, "but all of that is just my folks being stupid and magic can't _ever_ fix that."

"But magic _can_ fix cancer!" Keesha nearly yelled, "If we can shrink and take on your streptococcal bacteria in an epic battle, why can't that be done for a real disease? Why is my Grandmother dying in a hospital? Why is there nothing I can do about it?" Rather than let everyone stare at her some more, Keesha turned around.

With the incriminating lever seated right in front of her, with a small wish and hope to draw attention away from herself, she tried the lever again.

While on the outside, the school bus remained normal, the inside swirled around and the occupants felt the stretching bone feeling of metamorphosis.

When the movement ceased, everyone was human, except for a lizard, a ferret, and a woodpecker who was determinedly attacking Ralphie's head, taking all of her frustration out on him.

Dorothy Ann, now once again nearly twice as tall as her sister, turned toward Amanda Jane and said, "Mom should be waiting outside for you," she than addresses all of the elementary school kids, "Go on home, but don't tell your parents that Miss Frizzle was kidnapped; They would probably panic and not understand."

"I promise that we will find Miss Frizzle and bring her back," Tim vowed as he opened the bus's door. Ralphie was first to depart, attempting to flee the angry woodpecker.

After everyone else had filed out of the bus, Tim called out for the woodpecked to get back in. After a couple more pecks at Ralphie's head, she flew back inside. The doors shut, the windows dimmed momentarily, and then the doors reopened letting Tim and Keesha out to join the others.

"Feel better?" Phoebe asked, apparently amused.

"Much better, actually," Keesha smiled, readjusting her jacket.

"I'm sorry Keesha," Dorothy Ann said simply.

As the younger kids joined the ones now leaving the school, Tim spoke up, "We should tell the principal that they're going to need a substitute for a while."

-!o≡ll≡o!-

Upon finding the Principal's office the teens knocked, led by Dorothy Ann, "Mr. Ruhle? I'm not sure if you remember us, but we used to all go to school here."

Mr. Ruhle looked up from his paperwork and greeted them, "Ah, yes, you were in the class Miss Frizzle had for two years in a row. Come one in!" He stood up and gestured for them to come in and to sit if anyone wanted to. "In fact, weren't ALL of you in that class?"

"Actually, yes," Dorothy Ann continued, wringing her hands nervously, "This is about Miss Frizzle."

Mr. Ruhle's posture stiffened, "Have you heard from her?"

The kids exchanged glances. "Then you know she's missing?" Wanda asked.

"She hasn't checked in for over a day!" He explained. Noticing the confused expressions on the youngsters' faces, he elaborated, "When I finally figured out about her special 'field trips'" he made air-quote gestures, "took me long enough to catch on, I know" he started to pace in the small area behind his desk, "I insisted that she would call me every 10 hours she was out on one of her trips. It didn't matter if the time difference was the Sahara Desert or a few eons in the past, she was usually pretty good about it, at least up to 15 hours at most between call-ins, anyway."

"Then you know about... the bus?" Phoebe spoke up.

"Oh, not until a few years ago, if that's what you're wondering," the principal mentioned off hand. "Tell me what you know, if you could."

There was some hesitation before Wanda spoke up "It sounds like a deliberate kidnapping," she explained seriously, "of both the Frizz and the bus."

Mr. Ruhle sat down heavily in his chair and asked for detail. "At least the children are okay," Mr. Ruhle sighed after they had told him all that they could. "She would rather the kids' life be as stable as possible rather than fret too much about her. I'm afraid I have no idea what to do in this situation."

"Mr. Ruhle," The secretary poked her head in the door, "Sorry to interrupt, but the director of the school board is on the line."

"Her class and I will search her classroom tomorrow," Ruhle promised in way of an apology for ushering them out after the secretary was out of earshot, "Scour the place for clues of previous threats, get as much detail from their witness accounts; anything we can do. I'll take care of the kids, but we are not going to be comfortable being idle."

The kids politely took their leave after exchanging contact phone numbers. Ralphie offered the number to his cellphone that one of his parents and their new spouse "bought me in lieu of bothering with any actual affection."

As the teenagers headed outside, they decided to head back to Walkerville High School. On the ride, they began to discuss their options.

"What information do we have to even start with?" Phoebe asked, sounding like she was losing hope.

"We have nothing at this point!" Wanda whined.

"Who would want to kidnap the Frizz?" Carlos pondered.

"Or maybe it was to steal the bus?" Ralphie offered.

"But everyone who knows about the bus loves it!" Phoebe insisted, "None of Miss Frizzle's students would ever betray them! If she suspected they would, she probably would never have taken her class on any special trips for that year."

"I can agree with Phoebe on that point," D.A. added, "When this school year began, I remember wondering how Amanda Jane would handle any field trips since she can be a bit of a sourpuss at times. The first few months past and they hadn't gone on any field trip. My other sister Eva Lynn started hinting to what she was missing out by being such a doubter about the field trips we had told her about. A week after she lightened up, they finally went on a field trip."

"Is there no one who would have any ill will towards Miss Frizzle or the Bus?" Carlos asked.

The others started to look toward Arnold.

"Oh no you don't!" he started, "You leave her out of this! Despite what you may think of her, she never hated Miss Frizzle or the bus!"

"Well, we've never been ones to jump to her tune!" Wanda answered.

"Why would she do anything to Miss Frizzle or the bus?" Arnold countered, glaring straight at her from his seat. "I happen to know for a fact that she does not have time to organize a conspiracy like this!"

"Yeah, she's too busy running your life for you!" Wanda pressed.

Phoebe maneuvered herself to block their views of each other, "But if it's not Janet, guys, who would?"

"I'd have to say it guys," Carlos added his thoughts, "that there may be someone who has found out about the bus and wishes to exploit it. But that still leaves a gaping 'Who?'"

"This definitely begs more research," Dorothy Ann concluded.

"Unfortunately, Phoebe and I have jobs to get to by five," Keesha said as Tim pulled the bus up in front of the school.

"I've got after-school plans as well," Arnold commented.

"Coach will probably want me to make up for missing practice," Ralphie added, "But I can put that off if there is anything specific I can work on."

"Me too," Wanda said.

"I do have homework that I never got a chance to finish," D.A. muttered, "And I really want to double check on A.J. even though she is home now."

"So that's it?" Tim asked incredulously as they began to get off the bus, "Miss Frizzle and the bus have been kidnapped, but you have better things to do?"

"I'm sorry Tim!" Phoebe replied, "We have other responsibilities. You did show up rather unexpectedly and we have nothing further we can do tonight!"

"At my old school," Tim started, "We never left anyone behind."

"That's not fair, Tim!" Phoebe cried from the blacktop just outside the door, "I can't risk losing my job! We aren't giving up, I promise! We'll keep in touch, we'll figure this out!"

Tim gave a hopeless sign and resigned, "Alright, keep me posted. I'll be in Standerton if anyone needs me." And with that, the door closed and Tim, the bus, and Mr. Funk took off.


	5. Chapter 5: A Place to Start

Return of the Magic School Bus by RogueDragon

Act 2: The Magic School Bus Gets Rescued

Chapter Five: A Place to Start

Carlos had blatantly sat down next to D.A. during history class. The last few years he hadn't avoided sitting next to any of his old friends, but hadn't gone out of his way to either.

On the outside, Carlos Ramon was a social butterfly. The charismatic, charmingly, and oft times completely wacko Latino seemed to be friends with the entire school, but if you were asked to name a specific individual as a friend, you might not be able to pin-point anyone in particular.

After establishing their project partnership yesterday, Carlos had intended to be more chummy with D.A. than usual, but now his demeanor towards the blonde was as if they were life long friends just catching up. They had set up a plan for their project pretty quickly and had been reminiscing for a while.

After a lull in the conversation, Dorothy Ann asked, in a low voice, "We haven't learned anything new about the... Frizzle situation yet, have we?"

"Tim and I were on IM brainstorming," Carlos replied, "but no brilliant breakthroughs or anything. Anything useful from your sister?"

"I got a general description, but it's too general to start making a suspect list." Dorothy Ann replied, "I thought about doing some internet research during lunch." She explained, "My folks have dial-up, so time is money on the internet."

"I searched the internet some, but all I got was school buses." Carlos replied.

"I guess my thought was on the chance that the conspiracy was started online," Dorothy Ann explained, "Lying awake worrying I thought of how a witness of the bus's magic might react, especially if it was negatively. You remember that cake you made for Miss Frizzle's birthday?"

"Being put in an oven is rather memorable."

"I thought about how frantic that baker must have been," Dorothy Ann continued, "What if it went so far that he lost his job because of crazy claims about a cake's origins? What if it's people like him who found other people like him and through research, found out about Miss Frizzle?"

"So do you suggest searching the internet as if we were a wronged witness?" Carlos asked, intrigued.

"That's an idea, at least," Dorothy Ann said, "it's somewhere to start."

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

When Carlos entered the library during lunch, Dorothy Ann was already there, having got out of Pre-Calc early to get a head start on her Internet research. The library was few on inhabitants and pretty laid-back for a Friday.

"Any luck?" he asked directly into her ear, having successfully snuck up on her and leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing on the computer.

"Carlos!" She growled, smacking his head and then took a second to compose herself. "There's a lot of avenues to research." She explained, "I've found websites where people put up their conspiracy and supernatural paranoia theories. Many of them are just one or two opinionated people piling together hearsay evidence to defend their ideas, but I've also found several discussion websites where people pool their ideas together. And then many of these have links to many more!" D.A. sighed "It's a lot to go through!"

"It's a good thing I brought backup, then!" Carlos proudly declared.

Dorothy Ann looked up and around the library to see what he meant, but was left confused.

"Aw man!" Carlos whined as he leaned away to better see the hallway, "They stopped at a locker! That would have been perfect dramatic timing otherwise!"

Certain that D.A. was starting to question his sanity; Carlos's image was finally saved when Keesha and Phoebe came in.

"Hi guys!" They greeted.

"Carlos said we were doing research!" Phoebe announced, "How can we help?"

They began to divide up the links Dorothy Ann had already collected and set up at the other available computers. Luckily most of them were free, since those more likely to do non-research preferred the computer labs for lunchtime.

Carlos had also recruited Ralphie's help who came with Wanda in tow when they were able. "I tried to get Arnold's help too, but I think Wanda's glaring scared him off."

"I did not glare!" Wanda insisted.

"You're right," Ralphie conceded, "you avoided eye contact all together."

"Janet dragged him off to another Most-Important-Students meeting or something." Wanda corrected bitterly.

"We'll have to work with him eventually, you know," Ralphie told her.

"Says who?"

"My gut," Ralphie declared, "Things are going to get epic are we're all going to have to work together to save the day, I just know it!"

"Would you two shut it!" Keesha contributed.

After half hour of searching and sharing some of the wackier websites, Ralphie found a promising lead.

The site collaborated various accounts of strange vehicles, with a couple mentions of a school bus. Keesha and Wanda continued to investigate other potential sites, but everyone else gathered around Ralphie.

"It won't let me into the discussion area without a log-in," Ralphie grumbled as he started making a profile for the website, "WeatherMan04? Nah, how about someone older? Although half the time user name numbers are birth years instead of graduation... Robotronic! Yes! Valid username! Wahoo!"

"We really wonder about you sometimes, Ralphie." Phoebe commented, before remembering that he hadn't gone by that name in years. "Or would you rather us call you Ralph?"

"I really don't care," he laughed, "I get the feeling I'm always going to be Ralphie to you guys, and that's fine with me." He continued to type as he added, "Interesting that these guys don't ask for names. Completely anonymous."

"Sounds like they have something to hide!" Carlos concluded.

Luckily the site automatically allowed him limited access with his throw-away account. D.A. experimented and found that found that the login could be bypassed with direct URLs. So Ralphie pulled up several webpages and distributed the URLs so the others could help him investigate this site.

When Wanda gave up on her search, she asked the other what they had found.

"It's pretty much jackpot on D.A.'s idea to find anti-magic-bus conspirators," Carlos explained. "If you want to capture a magic school bus, post online and find others and conspire with them!"

"That makes it sound like I'm the mastermind behind it, Carlos!" Dorothy Ann complained, "From what I've researched so far, the ringleader is TruthSeeker, who started this site and is obsessed with proving the existance of a magical school bus. There are, what appear to be, three other regulars: GP, ApocalypticConclusion, and Marge95531."

"Most of the ones I looked at were comparing possible sightings," Phoebe reported, "Apparently two years ago Marge-nine-five-whatever had a run in with Miss Frizzle when they were making a quarry or something. Probably a geology fieldtrip in the middle of nowhere. Why Marge was in the middle of nowhere she never says."

"Whoa." Carlos interrupted in a tone so unexpectedly serious that Wanda, Phoebe, and Keesha gathered around his desk to see what he had found.

"I'm not sure I was supposed to find this..." He continued with his full focus on the computer screen. "It seems a one-time-log-in (or maybe just a lurker) named WalkervilleAvenger started a discussion about getting someone who is already 'in the know' who could be convinced to go against the 'hoarders of this suspect technology'." After a pause for emphasis, he revealed, "And gives the name of someone in particular..."

- - - !o≡ll≡o! - - -

Carlos had been having too much fun with dramatic introductions in the last couple of days. He slammed open the double doors to the auditorium where the student government was once again trying to establish a plan of action for their fundraiser or some such, he really didn't care. The effect was properly received when all attention turned to the six juniors who just entered the room.

"Can we help you?" Student body president Harry Armstrong said with stifled amusement.

"We humbly beg the pardon of our illustrious student leaders," Carlos gave a sweeping bow, the sweeping hand smacking into Ralphie as the rest of the former classmates pushed in behind him. "But we need to talk to Perlstien and Perlstein!"

"About what?" Janet demanded.

"Both of us?" Arnold asked, confused.

"Actually more Janet than you, Arn" Ralphie clarified.

"I told you guys to leave her out of this!" Arnold stood up to confront them.

"Leave me out of what?" Janet got up as well.

"She was already in this, Perlstein!" Wanda countered, joining the front row of the face off.

"What are you people talking about!" Janet's voice rose above the others, "We are trying to plan an important fundraiser here!"

"No, no, Janet, it's okay," Harry responded, "We could use the entertainment." Some of the other seniors didn't seem to agree and started to wrap up a couple more thing before they gave up on their meeting and left.

"Thank you so much!" Janet griped, throwing her hands into the air. "We were so close to beginning the recruitment for volunteers for the fundraiser! Too much delay and we may not be able to get the pool constructed before our senior year!"

"Think your potential connection to criminal kidnapping is a more important than when this school gets a pool." Keesha stated bluntly.

With Janet at a bewildered loss of words Arnold cut in with a fury, "You people have a lot of nerve!" He huffed, his face toning to match his hair color. "We're you planning on announcing your accusations to all of her friends at once?"

Keesha relaxed her no-nonsense demeanor to look a little guilty, "I was only trying to cut through the inevitable B.S., Arnold, my bad" She apologized, "but everyone but the pres and your girlfriend have already left."

Arnold glanced around and relaxed a bit. Harry lounged on the stage with no apparent signs of giving the juniors any privacy. The only other senior was Tiffany, standing a little bit away, wanting (but not sure how) to be supportive.

"How long do I wait until some explains what I've kidnapped?" Janet was not amused.

"They think you helped kidnap Miss Frizzle." Arnold said before anyone else could.

"Miss Frizzle?" Janet couldn't seem to keep her mouth from hanging open from perplexed confusion, "have you tried Pluto?"

"It's true, Janet!" Arnold tried to mediate, placing himself as a barrier between his cousin and his former classmates.

"What? How can it be true?" Janet sputtered, "That sort of news would be around the whole school! The whole town! If she's really gone, it should be cops questioning me and not your elementary school buddies!"

"What kind of missing persons report would say 'Missing: Parrot with frizzy red hair'?" Ralphie countered.

"Um, guys?" Harry called from the stage, "Tiffany was never a student of Miss Frizzle's."

Much to her embarrassment, they all looked at the short-haired blonde to see her reaction to the slip. "What don't I know?" She said nervously, "I know Miss Frizzle is known for her crazy fieldtrips; everyone who went to Walkerville Elementary School does."

Arnold look the most surprised, "You knew?"

"You never went into detail," Tiffany explained, "I did pick up that you did a lot of role-play to learn about science, very interactive. You always claimed you dreaded them, but I know that something about those years was very important. I've always wondered why you never talk to any of these guys."

"Oh, we wondered too," Wanda said from the back of the group.

"You seriously never told her about the magic?" Janet said to put her cousin even more on the spot.

"Janet!" he hissed.

"Look, I'm sorry," Tiffany said, gathering up her things, "I'll leave." And she headed out of the auditorium.

"Tiffany!" Arnold called, but dared not move from his protective position by Janet.

"Would someone PLEASE tell why I've been accused of betraying Miss Frizzle!" Janet blurted after the sound of double doors closing confirmed Tiffany's departure.

"These!" D.A. reached between Wanda and Carlos to shove some printouts at her.

"You've been contacted multiple times about Miss Frizzle, dating back several months!" Wanda accused.

"All evidence points to these people being the kidnappers!" Dorothy Ann added.

"The last time was two weeks ago," Keesha explained.

Janet was still flabbergasted, "Are you talking about the crazy conspiracy people?"

"Janet?" Arnold shifted to look more directly at his cousin, a look of disbelief and betrayal.

"What? I still had nothing to do with any kidnapping!" Janet responded and then sighed with defeat when it looked like he would no longer be on her side. "Look, they first approached me at school," when terror flashed across her cousin's face she quickly added, "There was people everywhere, and no tinted van to kidnap me with! Anyway, they sounded like they were a junk mail scam or a bad internet ad! Would you like to earn some money?" She said in a mock advertising voice, "hurry now, you're our only hope!"

Janet set aside her mocking and air-quotes, but stayed just as animated as she continued, "Then they mentioned Miss Frizzle and the 'resource' she hoarded." She spat the word with disgust, "apparently a witness had named me as an enemy of Miss Frizzle's and that gaining control of the bus was a goal we all shared! Who would think I would do anything like that!"

The others exchanged glances, but Ralphie didn't hesitant to speak his mind, "You really don't have the best track record, Janet! Think about it!"

"What? When did I work against her?" Janet blurted out before she could think, but even as she did, she started to remember some examples with guilt.

"Pluto?" Keesha offered sourly.

"That was my first trip!" Janet insisted, "I wasn't used to it like you! And I was in space! That level of coolness can't be expected to invoke rational behavior!"

"The theater where you tried to convince us Arnold was a ghost?" D.A. offered next.

"I was nine years old!" Janet cried, "With workaholic parents and few real friends, I just wanted attention! We do stupid things as kids!"

"And when we get older," Wanda added unhelpfully.

"You sure are a shining example of maturity," Janet retaliated.

"How about the time you sabotaged our entry to the perfume contest!" Ralphie accused, stepping between Wanda and Janet, trying to direct the conversation.

"How did you know..." Janet started, "Right, magic school bus... you were probably IN the jars, weren't you?" She continued when her only response was the still accusing glares. "I did NOTHING out of intentional spite towards Miss Frizzle!" She began to clarify, "Miss Frizzle still treated me with potential and support every time! I have never held ill will towards her and I most definitely wouldn't help anyone kidnap her!"

The others still looked doubtful, but since the issue looked to get personal, Harry decided it best if he snuck out and left them alone; although he did hear the next inevitable bit.

"If there was anyone I didn't like, it was all of you!" Janet turned her back to the others and fumed, "I was vindictive and disagreeable, I know, but I still wanted friends. My best friend was my cousin, and he was always hanging out with you people!"

"Is that why you started manipulating him?" Wanda stormed over to face Janet, "Why you got him to stop being our friend? To get back at us?"

"Hey, don't blame her!" Arnold tried to cut in, but was ignored.

"No, I'm not as petty as some people!" Janet countered, "I just saw his potential! He always made friends so much better than me, so I figured, when we started middle school we could try making new friends, influential friends, that maybe together we could make a difference in this community!"

"Very noble," Wanda said without any actual sentiment.

"Look! As I got older I did have an epiphany and realized how selfish it was and told him we could try and get in touch with you all again, but he didn't go for it!"

"He WHAT?" Wanda growled, "Well, I'm glad my bitterness against you is vindicated," Wanda said over Janet's shoulder to Arnold, who very much looked like her wanted to hide in the auditorium seats.

"I promise," Ralphie cut in, walking towards the girls, "Wanda really isn't as petty and immature as she appears," Ralphie offered, like a big brother trying to help an annoying little sister without actually helping at all, "She's only spiteful when it comes to Perlsteins."

Wanda then punched Ralphie in the shoulder as hard as she could. He responded with a pathetic sob.

"Guys, we are getting ridiculously off course," Carlos interrupted, "Seriously, she said 'first contacted'; I want to know more about the other contacts with these people!"

As Janet edged away from Wanda and Ralphie, as Keesha leaned to whisper to Carlos, "That was remarkably non-ADHD of you." she praised.

"The comment has been bugging me," Carlos responded, still anxious. To his relief, Janet answered his question.

"After that first meeting, they contacted me was through e-mail, linked me to their site with this wordy appeal about learning, knowledge, and less talk that sounded remotely criminal." Janet gestured to the printouts still clutched in D.A.'s hands, "I'm sure you found that I did post on their website, but anything that would have been helpful was just me trying to belittle them. Or at least that's what my thinking was. If I told them how wrong they were, I hoped they'd leave me alone."

"But, what if you did offer to help them?" Phoebe spoke up.

"I didn't, I swear!" Janet insisted.

"But what if you did?" Phoebe said again. Her confused companions looked back to where she stood partway up the aisle. Her contemplative expression was not accusatory, but more like she was concocting an evil plan. "I have an idea," she smiled.


	6. Chapter 6: Meet the Henchmen

Return of the Magic School Bus by RogueDragon

Act 2: The Magic School Bus Gets Rescued

Chapter Six: Meet The Henchmen

Janet Perlstein's parents trusted her to be responsible. She was almost obsessive about serving her community and trying to gain a favorable standing with them. They weren't sure whether to be proud or nervous about her natural affinity for politics, but they were supportive nonetheless. They assumed the reason why she was endorsing her cousin for next year's student-body president, instead of herself, was so she could still have time for her community activities.

That's why they let her borrow the car all of the time.

They may be more hesitant if they knew that she was currently standing by herself at the back of a Wal-Mart parking lot, waiting to meet someone who contacted her over the internet.

She waited outside the car, having told whoever was to meet her to look for her curly red hair. She had been waiting, leaning against the car for ten minutes and was starting to feel nervous. As a defense mechanism, she mentally changed gears to her bratty superiority mode. She could be polite when she wanted to, but there was no way these strangers were going to try and convince her she was vulnerable.

Finally a dark gray car was circling at her end of the parking lot and finally pulled up a parking space away from her.

A woman and a man got out of the car. The woman was short with dark brown hair, while the man was tall, younger with platinum blond hair. The man she recognized from her first encounter with these people.

"Are you Janet?" the woman questioned.

"Are you TruthSeeker?" Janet asked instead of responding.

The woman, a rather grumpy sort apparently, took that as identity confirmation, "I'm Marge95531" she corrected, "And this ApocalypticConclusion," She added with distain. Janet wasn't sure if the disapproval in her tone was directed at the man' choice in screenname or her general opinion of her companion.

"He introduced himself as Scott when he approached at my High School," Janet countered, "But then again, I wouldn't have known about the screennames at the time."

Marge95531 glanced and her companion in irritation again before finally answering Janet's question. "TruthSeeker is busy."

"Busy?" Janet spat, "And here I thought he or she sought _me_ out. Apparently I'm not actually worth their time."

"You turned him down," The woman replied, "you said you weren't interested in our... enterprise."

"I suppose that's fair," Janet responded, "but what did you expect? You were soliciting a teenage girl to assist in apparently shady dealings via the internet."

Marge and Scott exchanged glances that rather conceded Janet's point. "Then why help us now?" The young man inquired, "You did contact _us_ this time around."

"Well, something has come up," Janet explained, "I was promised money for this escapade if I assisted. Unfortunately for you, I'm the well-loved only daughter of a successful nurse and a business man whose company I'm due to co-inherit. Money is not a good enough to catch my attention."

"So what did catch your attention?" Marge asked a bit disgusted.

"Let's just say I'd rather be owed a favor." Janet stood tall and walked confidentially casual towards them, really digging into the spoiled princess persona. "Well, as I hinted to just now, I'm due to inherit a business alongside my cousin. But he's getting ambitious. My first hint was when we both got involved with the student government: at first we were in it together, but he is all but president-elect next year and has managed to completely marginalize me." Janet continued, "But this, I know, is just practice. He's after the business that our fathers built together and he aims to push me out. Men seem to hear 'It's a man's job' much more easily than 'You've taught me well, daddy, I can do this!'"

Scott didn't seem very impressed by Janet's perfect blend of pouty princess and mistreated feminism, but Marge was apparently still listening, "And how would you expect us to help you out with that?"

"More importantly," Scott added, "how could you help us?"

"Well, this project of yours revolves around something that I know I'm more familiar with than you are," Janet stood in front of them, hands on hips, "It trusts me, and I doubt it likes any of you at all."

The shady duo exchanged glances again that confirmed Janet's assumption. "We'll see about that." Marge mearly nodded to Scott before looking at Janet again and gestured for the teen to come towards their car.

"Whoa, I am not getting into the back seat of a tinted-window car!" Janet protested.

"We don't want you to to get in," Scott laughed, almost upbeat, a drastic contrast to his companion. He had been friendly and charismatic when she first met him at Walkerville High. She had thought then back that it had only been to sell her their idea. But, no, it seems he enjoyed his questionably legal job.

"By the way," Janet added, "You should know that I told my cousin to call me every hour or so to check in on me."

Scott hesitated with suspicion, "You told him you came here?"

"No," Janet responded coolly, "I told him I was going on a blind date and I wanted an excuse incase I needed to get away from my date." For good measure, she added, "Also, if I didn't respond to a few consecutive check-in calls, that he was welcome to assume the worst and report me missing."

"Chill out, kid!" Scott said to Janet's annoyance, he couldn't have been more than five years older than her. As he opened the rear car door, Janet glanced around.

Out of the vehicle, Scott pulled out a two-foot tall birdcage. Inside the cage was a bright multi-colored macaw with more magenta than macaws... ever have; and frizzy red hair. She could not have been very comfortable in that cage.

"Janet! How lovely to see you again!" Miss Frizzle cheerfully greeted as if she wasn't a prisoner.

"Miss Frizzle?" Janet gawked.

Scott and Marge seemed satisfied. "There was some doubt that she or the... thing even knew you." Marge explained. "But maybe you could be of use to us; and in return, we could... owe you a favor," Marge offered, "once we've mastered the creature."

Janet had to take a moment the mentally compose herself. "There's a lock on the cage." The teenager said trying to disguise any emotion.

"She'd figure out how to escape a regular bird cage," Scott shrugged his shoulders casually.

"You captured an elementary school teacher?" Janet's disgust was becoming obvious.

"We needed her to get to the bus," the young man explained, more defensively this time.

"She had to have been on a field trip," Janet faced Marge and Scott, getting angry, "Did you kidnap the children too?"

"No!" Marge was getting upset as well.

"So, what, you abandoned them?" Janet accused, "Left them who knows where without a teacher? Were they just collateral damage?"

"What kind of teacher takes kids on dangerous trips like that?" Marge countered, "We're doing a service!"

"Don't back out on us now," Scott enticed, "Think of what we can get once we harness the bus's magic."

"You're committing a felony!" Janet barked, "How about you give me the cage and I NOT report you to the police!"

"And what would you tell them?" Scott challenged her, "You can't admit that you know her; that you've participated in her exploits without bringing everyone against you."

"You can't prove anything," Marge added with a scowl, "I've tried. The world does even let us try and reveal any of this before we are shut down, ridiculed, and disgraced."

"I've got your suspicious e-mails and could claim that this confrontation, as witnessed by Wal-Mart's Security cameras, was to blackmail me into accompany you for your twisted, criminal activities!" Janet countered, "I am, after all, a defenseless teenage girl who is well liked in her community. I promise I will pretend none of this happened and leave you to your criminal behavior if you will just give me the bird and promise me that you will leave me alone!"

"Janet does commit herself when she puts her mind to it," Miss Frizzle offered.

The humans warily glared at each other, uncertain about making any moves.

After a few minutes, Janet's cellphone began to ring in her pocket. Marge and Scott watched her warily, looking ready to pounce her. Janet flipped her phone out and answered it.

"Hey cuz!" She said in a perky tone and waited for a response, "Yeah, about that date, there's something you should know..."

Janet narrowed her eyes at the adults in an unspoken challenge.

Scott held out the cage to her which Janet took after stepping to meet part way. With the birdcage in hand, Janet stepped back to her car and continued into her phone, "My date never arrived; I think I've been stood up. I'm going to just head on home."

Marge and Scott took that as a sign they were safe and edged back to their car as Janet edged towards hers. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" She said into her phone, "I knew it was a risk when I agreed to a blind date. Nothing really to tell, don't worry about me." She awkwardly hung-up single handedly and opened the door behind the driver's seat.

"How good is parrot eyesight?" Janet said softly to her locked-up companion. "Can you see a golden little ladybug?"

Miss Frizzle moved to where she could see around the human who was securing the cage with a seatbelt.

"I do see a rather golden coccinellid beetle!" Miss Frizzle chirped, "It has oddly linear spots!"

"Is it near their car?" Janet, finished with her task, kept her back to the other car, but to the side to avoid blocking the macaw's view.

"Oh, it just snuck inside their vehicle just as the passenger door closed," Miss Frizzle observed with mild interest.

"They did it!" Janet released a heavy sigh as she closed the rear door and entered the driver's seat.

"Not to sound ungrateful, Janet" Miss Frizzle wasted no time speaking up, "But please tell me if you know if my class is alright."

As Janet drove, she explained all she had been told and that the kids were safe and at home. "However, I'm afraid you might be stuck as a bird for a while. The only available magic school bus is out trying to find yours."

"Oh, I can make do, Janet, don't worry!" Miss Frizzle replied, "Besides, while there are only two magic school buses that I know of; it doesn't mean that they are the only ones of their kind!"


	7. Chapter 7: Spy Bug

Return of the Magic School Bus by RogueDragon

Act 2: The Magic School Bus Gets Rescued

Chapter Seven: Spy Bug

The last few hours had been rather tense waiting. They'd had to formulate a plan, arrange a couple of meetings, and had to get Tim down to Walkerville with Shu's bus. Now they were hitch-hiking in the car of the enemies; there wasn't more to discuss but to wait and see.

The ladybug bus only had three rows of seats on each side. It was more than necessary, but it probably sensed that some of its occupants weren't feeling cozy with each other. All conversation within was hushed, although it was doubtful how much noise people half a millimeter tall could make that regular-sized humans could overhear.

The silence was broken by Marge who was driving the car. "I don't care what Dave or Jerry say, I'm glad to be rid of that bird! I just hope we can trust that girl."

"I think she knew as well as we that the authorities can't be dragged into this," Scott commented, "All she has is a talking parrot with hair; nothing more than a side-show trick to any bystanders."

"I wouldn't underestimate anything, kid!" Marge sniped, "But that parrot was more work than she was worth!"

Scott laughed, "You didn't like the way she pleasantly educated you about the nutritional requirements of New World parrots?"

"Or any number of other factoids, save anything that could actually help us unlock the secret of her creature?" Marge grumbled, "We put a cover on her cage to shut her up and she comments on its fiber content!"

"Well, I don't think Dave will mind," Scott added, "As long as the bus still thinks she's a hostage, it'll cooperate."

"Oh, poor bus!" Phoebe's whisper was heard only be her other tiny companions, "What have they been making it do?"

Marge and Scott continued to chat occasionally about various thing which Dorothy Ann and Tim led several of the others in taking notes on for any potential clues.

Phoebe had trouble keeping up with it all; she was too busy being worried. She worried about the captive bus. She worried about what she and her friends could be getting into. She was worried about having called off from work with only a couple hours notice. Keesha had tried to reassure her since they were dedicated and hardly ever called off that their bosses would be forgiving.

Tim had gone to the back of the vehicle where the bus had provided a small galley and restroom for their potential long waits. On his way back up front, he squeezed into the back row where Phoebe had been somberly pondering by herself.

"Hey, Pheebs," Tim whispered in greeting, "How you holding up?" Apparently concerned that her quietness might mean she was upset.

"Oh, I'm alright," Phoebe reassured just as quietly, "I'm just worried. I'm sure we all are."

Tim nodded awkwardly as if agreeing with her but also working himself up to say something that was on his mind. "I wanted to say sorry, for yesterday," he finally said. "I practically accused you of not caring about Miss Frizzle or the bus," he fidgeted a bit ashamed of himself. "I doubted you all and was rightly put to shame when you guys called and told me you not only had a lead, but a plan!" Tim sigh, "Well, I accused the others too, but a good bit of frustration was taken out on you. You are, as we all know, the most caring out of all of us! That was really unfair of me. I'm sorry."

Phoebe blushed awkwardly at the high praise and tried to reassure by pointing out her own flaws, "I was in a frustrating bind too," Phoebe forgave, "Our mission was half success, half failure. None of us were too happy."

"Carlos said we all have our own issues now," Tim commented with a half-hearted laugh, "I guess mine was high expectations. I think I missed all of you all a lot more than I realized and when it wasn't just like old times I got disappointed."

"Well, our current situation is not about adventure and discovery," Phoebe contributed, "Whether we knew it or not, I think Miss Frizzle was always in control before."

"And this time we know Miss Frizzle was caught off guard, literally" Tim agreed, "This time, the chance for failure is far more drastic." Tim stayed a couple thoughtful minutes before he gave her a "Thanks, Phoebe," and returned to the driver's seat of the bus where he continued his sketches of Scott and Marge in addition to contributing to the whispered discussion going on in the front rows.

Phoebe sat for a while longer, now with additional worrying. It was true what Tim mentioned, they all did seem to be going through some trials in their lives. Phoebe wanted to fix them all so none of her friends had to suffer, but with her own struggles she felt so powerless; how could she help anyone else? More fretting grew as she worried how these things could affect their mission. What if they were held back from their true potential?

Phoebe got fed up; sitting and thinking didn't solve problems. Action solved problems! But there was nothing for her to do! She moved to the other side of the isle beside the seat farthest from the driver where Arnold sat by himself.

"Hey," she greeted, "waiting for a call from Janet?"

"Not likely," He straightened with a bit of a stretch, "Probably won't risk the sound alerting the stooges," he explained with a gesture to the windshield of the ladybus which was watching Scott and Marge intently.

"How are you doing?" Phoebe gently inquired.

"I'm alright," He sat back with a slump, "Now that Janet and Miss Frizzle are okay, for the most part."

"They'll be fine," Phoebe reassured, "They're smart and stubborn," she smiled, "they won't be fooled again."

"Yeah," He acknowledged, "I know." He studied his hands without really looking at them

But Phoebe was not ready to let that be the end of the conversation. "Do you really want to be student body president next year?"

The question caught Arnold off guard and he was at a loss for words for a few moments. "I- uh, sure, I guess, I mean, I could do a lot and be a good influence."

Phoebe leveled him with a glare, "That's Janet's party line, isn't it?" in response to Arnold's slightly surrendering slump Phoebe pushed on. "Why do you let her dictate everything? We all want to know." Phoebe didn't feel like dancing around the subject like he probably has been doing for years. "From what we saw this afternoon, Janet probably wouldn't push you around as much if you didn't make it so easy."

Arnold sighed uncomfortably, but Phoebe made no signs of relenting. "I guess it started when we started middle school. We all found new friends but Janet mainly lost friends as her new ones started hanging out with other people. So I started making more of an effort to hang out with her."

"So you let her run your life?"

"It was gradual," Arnold explained, "but she would get so excited making big plans for us. Her student government plans are some of her biggest, but she didn't start it without knowing that I'd be all in as well."

"Then why does it seem like you're dragging your feet?" Phoebe wasn't buying it.

"I don't know if you've noticed, Phoebe" Arnold said with a dry laugh, "I drag my feet in everything I'm dragged into."

"I know that's not a universal truth," Phoebe differed, "Everyone here has seen you take the front lines with determination and enthusiasm!" Arnold didn't seem to believe her, so she continued, "I've seen you charge into a thicket to save a dinosaur egg. We all watched you take on a Tyrannosaurs Rex! Sure you were as tall as him, but he still was dangerous! I've seen you dive into danger to save a friend's life! We all know you're capable of making your own future and decisions, Arnold, which is why, the last few years, watching you take a back seat in your own life baffles us."

Arnold said nothing, apparently pondering what Phoebe had said. He slouched back to stare at the back on the seat in front of him. She may have let it go at that point, but there was still an issue that could become a problem if they didn't figure it out.

"What did you do to Wanda that made her so... hateful towards you?" Phoebe got to the point.

Arnold's head snapped up to look at the brunette, then to the further end of the ladybus where the enthusiastic Asian was brainstorming plans of attack with Ralphie while Keesha countered with possible holes in their ideas.

"I-" Arnold started but hung his head in surrender, "She and Janet are more alike than they realize. Wanda and I had started doing everything together. Plenty of stupid kids' stuff, like we'd make-believe we were on an Indiana Jones-type adventure was one of our favorites."

"Any kid who didn't do things like that didn't live properly," Phoebe agreed.

"As years went by, I started to hang out with Janet more and she would hang out with Ralphie and Carlos."

"She hung out with us girls too," Phoebe contributed, "Sleepovers weren't too lame in Middle School."

"We were still close," Arnold reiterated, "she was even planning my birthday for me. Some huge to-do with more danger than necessary, I'm sure..." Arnold's posture looked like he was hoping the seat would swallow him. "The problem was... Janet had also planned my birthday that year. When it finally came, I had agreed to go along with Janet's plan, which isn't what really upset Wanda... You see, Janet had invited people who were mutual friends whose influence she approved of. Wanda didn't find out until just before that she hadn't even been invited to my party at all."

"Ouch!" Phoebe understated, "Birthday parties are very symbolic of our friendships back then. She must have thought that your friendship had ended."

"She never came to hang out after that, but then again, I never got around to inviting her," Arnold looked completely dejected, "I just lost touch with her and everyone else. Even when Janet offered to try and reconnect with all of you, it just didn't seem worth the trouble and anxiety."

"And you're scared," Phoebe concluded. "Stepping into the unknown is very scary, Arnold, but taking a chance is always an opportunity for growth. We've grown up, Arnold, some opportunities won't return to give us a second chance."

Whatever impression either of them would take from their chat was interrupted as everything lurched as the car changed pavement and slowed.

"Looks like Dave left. I guess his latest attempt didn't work," Marge could be heard commenting as the car pulled into the parking lot of a rather non-descript building.

"He mentioned looking into a lead," Scott added, "Might be why he didn't update us."

"When does he ever keep us up to date?" Marge swallowed her bitterness and changed tone. "You going in or just heading home?"

"Home," Scott grumbled, "It's not like we accomplished anything today."

As Marge slowed next to a lone car in the lot, Ralphie blurted out, "Don't go home! We need in that building!"

Neither full-sized human heard, thankfully, and the ladybus took off to follow Scott out the car door as he got out.

"Come on, guys!" Wanda cried, "we need to give him a reason to go inside!"

"A bus honk!" Arnold spoke up suddenly, "mimic the bus's honk as if it came from inside!"

"Can we do ventriloquism?" Carlos asked, but already the ladybus was flying between Scott and the building.

"Don't forget the make the sound waves full sized!" Dorothy Ann chimed in.

"Um, D.A., I think it already does," Arnold gently added, "it compensated for my cell phone signals to Janet-"

"B-BEEP! B-BEEP!" Even muffled, the honk from a tiny beetlebus was pretty loud to its occupants. Shu's bus did a good job of making the honk sound muffled, as if blared from deep within the building.

If Scott was a random bystander, he would have assumed he misheard slightly or that the sound echoed from elsewhere. But his eye narrowed in suspicion at the very particular sound. As he turned from his car, he switched to a different key which he used to enter the building. The insectoid vehicle latched onto the side on his jeans and hitchhiked inside.

It didn't look completely like a villain's hideout. It had pretty good lighting for one, even though Scott only turned on every other necessary light. But the place did seem unkempt, not so much as if was intentional nor completely neglected. Phoebe's guess was that the building's occasional occupants simply didn't respect each other enough to make an effort to keep the place nice. She certainly had no respect for these strangers.

Scott passed through some uninteresting rooms headed straight to a desk set up next to an observation window to a small room. He flipped on a light to reveal the observed room to be painted completely white with white tiled floor. And nothing else. Scott studied the empty room for a few tense minutes while the ladybus snuck to a safe vantage point and waited for something significant to happen.

But nothing did happen. Scott eventually sighed, switched off the light to the observation room and headed back the way he came, turning the other lights off as he went. Eventually he was gone leaving the spies without any light save for that which trickled in from the emergency light down the hall and a window in a different room.

"See any security cameras?" Ralphie whispered.

By this point everyone was clustered near the front of the bus; studying through the windshield without concern for personal space. After an intense examination of their surroundings, they saw no evidence of cameras or even those black globes that grocery stores use to hide their cameras.

Tim started a sequence that spun the world outside the bus and started to rearrange the interior so much that by the time the world stopped spinning they were being pushed out its door.

Once again full size, the bus's idea to become a phone booth allowed it to fit in the small front room that may have been a waiting area under previous ownership.

Carlos, amused by the telephone booth idea did his best Bill and Ted impersonation while Ralphie went on about how a police call box would have been better. Apparently it was a British thing.

Everyone else, and eventually the goofballs, spread out to investigate the enemy base, doing their best not to disturb anything since what they were doing could be considered breaking and entering.

There was a break room that appeared to have had the most activity, although the only telling evidence was the birdseed crumbs and tiny magenta feathers that implied this was where they kept Miss Frizzle. Also near the ex-waiting room was a bathroom and a couple of rooms crammed with supplies, mostly stacked chairs. The only other rooms, including that locked observation room, was also an office filled with filing cabinets and loading room with a garage door.

There was nowhere big enough to keep a bus, and no signs of a Great Blue Heron.

Half the group started trying to figure out the empty observation room that Scott had been so interested in. The others examined the rooms with the filing cabinets and the loading dock.

"Well, they are reliably paranoid," Carlos observed, "No computer, just locked filing cabinets."

"Their paperwork appears to be the only thing they bother to keep tidy," Keesha added sardonically.

"Anyone know how to pick locks?" Ralphie suggested without success. He decided to try his hand at it anyway, hoping he might get lucky. He failed, by the way.

Dorothy Ann and Keesha started inventorying the loading dock which had several indecipherable gadgets and taking notes on any other finds mentioned in case it could be a clue for later.

Everyone else, however, went to the desk by the observation window to that white room Scott had been so intent on.

Other than the filing cabinets and the front door, the excessively empty room was the only thing kept locked. Even the large loading dock door was able to be opened by anyone already inside the building. Everyone knew this room was key. It's just that is was short on elbow room for everyone to study it at once.

Tim tried his luck with the locked door, Arnold looked through a scribbly notepad, Wanda checked the cabinets, while Phoebe simply turned on the light to the white room and studied it.

"Hey Pheebs, is there a camera in there?" Wanda asked with her head half in a cabinet under the desk.

Phoebe angled herself to try and see the near wall of the room and confirmed that there was actually something in the bare room. "Yeah, there is!" Phoebe replied, "Looks like it's in a tightly sealed glass box. Got carried away with the caulking."

Wanda pulled out a collection of VHS tapes, each labeled with a date. "There's a VCR down there, apparently recording an empty room."

"The TV in the break room has a VCR, doesn't it?" Arnold offered.

Curious, Phoebe wanted to note Wanda's reaction to a cooperative and companionable comment, but if there had been one, she missed it. Wanda had apparently handed several tapes to Arnold and gathered up several more before following him. Phoebe, Tim, and Ralphie (having given up on lock picking) also went to the break room.

"Does the notebook have anything helpful?" Wanda asked Arnold, facing the TV as she rewound the tape with the same date as the kidnapping.

"The handwriting is pretty sloppy," Arnold replied, looking slightly relieved that Wanda wasn't treating him as if he had the plague anymore. "Mostly checklists: trailer, camera, paint, bracers, generator, freezer..."

"I didn't see any of those things," D.A. Commented, entering the room. "Well, there were painting supplies."

"They must have additional location," Ralphie suggested.

"I wonder if they're as locked down as this place." Carlos said as he and Keesha joined them, "The most we've got here is some receipts, of what and from where I have no idea."

"Other than some basic hardware," Keesha corrected, "Like that paint you mentioned."

"Yeah, well, nothing helpful," Carlos conceded, "The paint's probably for that white room."

The VCR clicked when the rewind hit the beginning of the tape while Carlos was yammering.

Wanda hit 'play' and everyone watched.

The recording began with the plain room empty, but there were muffled sounds.

"We're not watching 'The Ring' are we?" Ralphie asked.

Finally the door opened and they saw two people carrying what looked like a chest, or a freezer, or a retrofitted chest freezer. It had some obvious after-market modifications including tubes and wires, a device (maybe a motor) attached to the side and another apparatus with a shoulder strap that one of the carriers wore which connected to the chest via the tubes and wires.

The individuals matched the elementary kid's description of the kidnappers: men in hunting gear, but their angle was poor for identification. A blonde woman entered and started to flip switches and whatnot on the device after the men had set it on the ground. Eventually they all left the room followed by a hiss as if it was pressure sealed.

Suddenly, the latches on the strange container burst open and the lid loosened. The contents worked the lid open and scrambled out. Behaving as any panicked, lanky bird that had just been freed only to be in a larger trap; a great blue heron with headlights and a grill on its beak flailed about, tending towards the far corner from its old cage.

Close to tears, Phoebe realized that she had let out a gasp at the sight of the scared and frail looking bus. Keesha had wrapped a comforting arm around her, but nothing was said. Everyone just watched the TV.

Apparently there was an intercom to the room. "Stop!" A grouchy voice commanded, but the bus squawked defiantly. "Power down!" The voice tried "Revert form! Deactivate!"

This continued on for a few minutes as the speaker tried some other basic commands. Phoebe tried to stay and see what happened to the bus, but when its captor started to try electrifying the room, she couldn't take it and left.

She wandered for a bit, double checking the back rooms, but if there wasn't any new clues that she could see.

Turning a corner, she was startled to see an extra-golden golden retriever sniffing about the hallway. The searching hound had a windshield on his forehead and had Tim following behind.

"I couldn't stand it anymore either," he explained, "but I had an idea," he gestured to the dog. "I think it wanted to help but just needed an idea of how."

Phoebe instinctively scratched the dog on the head when it passed her by which gave an appreciative wag of the tail, but continued its search near the door of the observation room. "Reminds me of Maddie," Phoebe said with sad nostalgia, "The golden retriever my family got right after my parents' accident."

"It seems pretty intent on that door," Tim commented.

"But there's nothing in there," Phoebe responded. They watched the dog-bus check other areas, but seemed determined with the door of the white observation room.

Suddenly there was a thunk that caught their attention as Dorothy Ann and Ralphie had attempted to hurry out the break room door at the same time.

"The bus must still be in there!" D.A. cried as she squeezed past Ralphie with a shove.

Ralphie, with the same excitement, clarified, "We skipped to the last tape," he explained, "A few hours ago, Beard-o had been getting the bus's cooperation by threatening Miss Frizzle."

"He got the bus to turn into as much of a bus as would fit in that room-" Dorothy Ann continued.

"It was more of like the cab of a semi but smaller-" Ralphie rambled.

"But he went in, looked around, I guess, and left the room," D.A. cut in, "And then the bus disappeared again."

"It had been disappearing when they weren't torturing or threatening," Keesha explained, approaching behind Dorothy Ann, "We think it's just hiding microscopically."

Phoebe was already taking care of it, finding the intercom into the observation room, "Bus?" She called into the wall mic, "Bus, it's me, Phoebe Terese! We're here, we're all here: Keesha, Tim, D.A. and the others from Miss Frizzle's class in, what was it? Ninety-five? Ninety-six?" she pleaded, "We're here to rescue you! Please let us know if you're in there!"

Suddenly the blur of a yellow tornado swept out of a bare corner of the room and materialized into a three-foot-tall bus. It had the tell-tale hood rim down the center that no other modern bus seemed to have. It honked a happy beep and it rolled onto its rear wheel and braced with its front to look out the window. Everyone, who was now gathered around the observation window, whooped and cheered to see their old friend.

Joy, relief, and then panic crossed the captured bus's expression. The space above the windshield that usually displayed "School Bus" on any other bus was currently flashing "Frizzle?" "Frizzle?"

"She's safe," Phoebe reassured, "We got her out before we stowed away to find you!"

CKRRTHUNNNG!

Startled Phoebe nearly fell out of her seat, eyes shooting over to see Tim and Ralphie had grabbed a fire extinguisher and were attempting to used it to break off the handle to the door behind which the bus was trapped. Even with the two guys putting all their efforts into the force and aim, it was still a terribly awkward angle it bounced off the handle and door and probably gave the boys more bruises than the door.

"Can't buses pass through matter?" Carlos pondered aloud the option, "Like the time the bus put us in a chicken? Put Arnold into an egg when he got laid?"

Couple of heads whipped to look at Carlos, taking a few seconds to realize what he said. Half the group just ignored him, rolled their eyes, or groaned Carlos's name.

"How long have you been waiting to use that one?" Keesha quizzed.

"Heh heh…years."

The bus, looking rather anxious and upset, empowered by the idea of freedom, turned itself into a bull-dowser, well, a miniature version of one at least. "Look out!" Wanda and Dorothy Ann barely blurted out in time for the boys to dive out of the way as the bus plowed through the door. And it didn't stop there. Everyone else backed off as the bus started taking out walls, growing as it did so until, with a final whack to an exterior wall, it had returned to its regular size.

"Oh bad!" Keesha muttered, "Is someone outside going to see?"

"B-Beep!" Frizzle's bus honked insistently as it opened its doors towards its rescuers.

Having found what they came for, the eight teenagers and one dog-bus boarded the bus that was in mid-process of turning into its familiar space-rocket-form. Barely giving them enough time, the rocket-bus took off with overly explosive force as it zoomed into the sky.

"Well, with any luck, this will be written off as a freak meteorite hit," Dorothy Ann commented, watching the burning crater in villain's lair shrink into the distance as they streaked through the sky.

"We did it, guys!" Carlos celebrated. Everyone else needed a few more seconds to decompress from the recent events, but Carlos's infectious enthusiasm soon had everyone else celebrating too.

Tim, Phoebe noticed, looked as if the self-imposed responsibility for this mission had been a physical burden that had just been lifted from his shoulders. Everyone else also looked elated, probably from a bit of an adrenaline high. After all, heroics weren't a normal part of the High School curriculum.

"Hey, Janet" Arnold could be heard behind them all as he had pulled out his cell phone, "We did it, mission was a success!" After a short time, his face began to scrunch up in confusion at what he was being told by his cousin. "What do you mean 'We've got another problem'? Who has been attacked?"


End file.
